Saturday, June 12, 2010

Put Mr. Grumpypants in Charge

An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly.

In contrast to those annoying happy types, miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible, his experiments showed.

Evidently the best way to win an argument, then, is to be really glum about it, or at least take some pains to appear to be in the worst mood in the room.On the other hand, “positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts.”So as long as the people you’re talking to don’t care how you got there, you’re more likely to win them over by being jolly.Maybe the rule is to be grumpy when you think you’re right and jolly when you suspect you’re full of it.

My better half could not be suspected of a sunny disposition even by his friends.From now on, when he’s morose, I’ll simply observe that he seems unusually persuasive today.